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After being done with business professional talk, we decided to move on to our next lessons, which are politics. We decided to watch news as well as to read news articles. During reading the articles, I will find what vocabulary means and I will look up if any of the Hanja shows up. Starting next class, we will discuss on the topic that is happening very recently.

This class, we decided to watch 미생, a Korean TV drama, that has a background of a company. We thought we could use this tool to accelerate the comprehension of our talks last week and the week before. The drama contained many business formal situations and therefore it was very relevant to our lessons. It shows a common atmosphere in Korean companies and the good sides and the bad sides of it. After watching a 30 minutes clip, we talked about how we could utilize what we learned in those kind of situations.

This week was very similar from last week as we continued to talk about business professional conversation. This time we focused on negotiations and contracts as well as explaining products and pricing of the products. As the main idea flowed from the last class, it was easier to understand as well as it was easier to remember what we have learned last week. Next class we are going to wrap up this conversation and watch a relevant Korean TV drama.

This week, Evelyn and I met at eight fifteen to begin the lesson. We started with the Yeonsei Korean Reading 6. After reading the passage, I answered to the following questions that asks if I really understood the materials. We also discussed about the topic that we read on. Writing a summary of the paragraph was the hardest part of the lesson as I had to think both about the content, grammar rules and sentence structures.

Evelyn and I met to discuss about what I am interested in, and what we should aim for this semester. We decided to focus on readings particularly in Business and politics. We also found a book that is called Yeonsei Korean Reading 6 which suits my level of proficiency. We also decided to work with the book in order to increase my capacity in comprehension. We also planned for watching news, reading articles and books.

I want to be able to fully understand a news and books and to be able to write a sentence without grammatical mistakes. Moreover, I would like to be able to translate back and forth in Korean and English with proficiency. 

I will read a lot of books and news to make myself exposed to more of a written Korean language. I will make a lists of words that I was not familiar with and study them regularly until I master. I also will learn grammars that are confusing to me.

This week, we shifted our gears towards business conversation. Evelyn prepared a powerpoint that had diverse expression that are used in business professional world. They contained progress reporting, market researching and interpreting the researched data. We had a conversation about how each phrase or sentences would fit in to a particular situations as well as we talked how these particular vocabularies helps business to run more professionally and efficiently.

I am going to reflect on David Lee's presentation on delivery service in Korea. David highlighted that delivery service in Korea is a big part of food culture. When we use the delivery service, its usually there in 30 minutes at the latest and we don't have to pay for the delivery fee. As delivery culture is widely available in Korea, Korean people likes to eat late at night. We often stay at home to get delivery for lunch or dinner instead of going out to eat. I think this is possible since Korea is a such a small country and very condensed in particular areas. I think David did a good job on presenting this by showing the significant part of Korea's food culture.

During this semester of taking 105, I learned the structure of a language and how important it is to understand the culture of a target language just as well as learning the language itself. I have realized through this class that I learn language best by learning the use of various words in context instead of simply memorizing a list of new vocabulary. As a cultural explorer, I realized I am very interested in learning what I’m most unfamiliar with such as politics and history of Korea. Although I haven’t taken 110 yet, I can predict that learning politics and history of Korea or just professional and academic topics in general will be difficult because Korean language and its roots in Chinese characters which is often used in more advanced writing and topics. Also, the words used in news about politics are very difficult for me to understand even in the context of it. However, constantly watching news on a regular basis and exposing myself to these unfamiliar topics to gain knowledge gradually will help me in learning both the history and current events of Korea. Since I have not taken 110 yet, I can’t speak to which readings and learning activities I find most useful actually but in my learning plan, I wrote that I plan on watching a lot of news channels, reading business articles and novels to see and learn Korean in context of the show and the writing. This is because I know I learn best by actually practicing the use of a language in context. In terms of the readings and learning activities in 105, readings about how our brain works in terms of language and also readings about bilingualism were most useful to me because they were both very interesting but relatable topics. Understanding how our brain is engaged when using a language was a new insight to me and learning about how bilinguals differ from others helped me reflect on what I’m competent at as a bilingual and what may be the limitations and weaknesses that I can work on to improve. Cultural presentations were actually the most interesting activity because I could learn about other cultures other than Korean from others as well. And even if they were about Korean culture, I was able to learn a new thing from every presentation because there were things even I had not known as a Korean that others presented on and gave me new insight on. The discussions Professor Soloway led and the questions he posed in every lecture were all very helpful activity because he asked a lot of intriguing and reflective questions about each of our target language and culture. I would like to learn more about what are the tips in going from intermediary speaker of one language to very advanced. I’m assuming that the approaches to improve may be different depending on the level of a language. I also want to learn more about the origins of Korean language and its history because I know Korea has a long history. Also, I would like to learn more about the changes that came about in Korea in recent history and how the changes were started and what are the effects of those on the language itself.

Although I’m not taking SDLC 110 simultaneously with 105, I found the lessons that Professor Soloway taught us very helpful in simply understanding what language itself is. I realized in learning English, Korean and Spanish, I never really approached learning a new language from the perspective of morphology, semantics and syntax. So learning about a structure of a new language was a very new experience for me. Learning a new language whether that was English, Korean or Spanish, I simply memorized the rules of grammar and a list of vocabulary and expanded on such knowledge to improve myself. But I realized while taking this class that I definitely lack a lot of foundational knowledge about structures of language because I used to simply memorize what I was told to instead of truly understanding the concepts. In learning Spanish which was the third language I learned, I especially learned that language without truly understanding the structure or the culture of that language and my knowledge was majorly based on memorized rules and vocabulary. Because of that, I have almost forgotten most of Spanish except for a few phrases and words because I learned it by memorizing instead of understanding. I also learned from 105 that learning a new language is not just learning to speak, understand, read or write the language but is also about learning the culture of the country that speaks the language. Knowing the culture of a target language better prepares me to have the ability to use the language in proper manner in appropriate situations. Since I took this class with a few other students like Tana who is learning Hebrew and Chris who is learning Farsi, it was very interesting to learn about other cultures. Learning about them made me question a lot of things that I had not asked about Korean culture. For example, I didn’t realize how the culture of strong hierarchy of Korea was embedded in its language so much and I also didn’t realize how its collectivism culture was well represented in its language as well. For instance, because hierarchy is so important in Korean culture, there is a long list of two ways of saying the same word depending on whom you are talking to. For ones who are older than you, you have to choose the words carefully and use different suffixes as well to show respect. Collectivism is also portrayed in its language because while Americans say “my wife” “my family” “my house,” Koreans often say “our wife” “our family” and “our house” even when they are referring to “my wife” “my family” or “my house” because the well-being or interest of a group as a whole is prioritized before individual interests. To improve my communicative competence, I should definitely expand on the breadth of my vocabulary and also the understanding of the culture to apply the changes that have occurred in the culture on the language I use.

As I reflect on the progression of my Self Directed Language Class as of October 13th, I mainly focused on readings and class discussions. The main reading and discussion topics that Evelyn and I choose were Business and Politics.

I thought learning about Korean Business phrases and professional words would help me if I happen to have an internship over the summer, or eventually, get a job in Korea. As study in business school, I had a chance to talk a Korean accounting class with Professor Paik and I was not able to understand any of the terminologies. Therefore I wanted to gain my knowledge in Korean since I feel a disturbance for not knowing the phrase in Korean that I do know in English as a native speaker. Additionally, I was eager to learn more deeply about politics and political culture in Korea. The only way that I could be exposed to politics was to read news articles, but I gave up on it every time. From this opportunity, I hoped to learn more intermediate vocabulary words and politics in Korea.

The lesson started with learning business phrases for a progress report, market research and the prospect of business. Evelyn explained each phrases and the meanings of the word as we went over the powerpoint. After getting to know the meanings of them, we made up an example using the particular phrases and talked about the appropriate times to use those phrases in real life example. This activity helped me to gain a better understanding in each vocabulary words in the context of different situations. I also gained confidence in talking with business professional manner from these lessons.

Afterwards, we focused more heavily on the news articles that are related to politics. From reading many articles, I learned new vocabularies and noticed that certain amount of them is repeated throughout the article. By reading more, not only as the comprehension skills got better but the speed also got faster. Evelyn and I also had a discussion on the articles to see if I understood it correctly. We talked about the main topics and the issues from the article, and learned more deeply about related incidences. Discussion with Evelyn also helped with my speaking skills as I was able to utilize the new words that I learned from articles, and phrase them in organized manner.

Although I also wanted to focus more on writing and grammar structure, we did not get to this point as we were only focused on reading and speaking. I am in a progression of getting used to reading intermediate articles without having a frustration. I learned to look up on dictionary and to infer the meaning by thinking about the relationships of each sentence. For future lessons, I would like to shift the gear to listening and writing, and I hope to reach learning goals that I planned for at the beginning of the semester. I look forward to become a fluent speaker in all four dimensions of language skills.

Reflect upon what you have learned from the cultural projects presented in class. 

Brenda’s presentation about the increasing popularity of living alone and being ok with living alone was very interesting the context of Korea’s collectivist society, but such a life style isn’t particularly unusual in our American, individualist society. I thought it was really amazing how modern financial concerns, like the increasing cost of supporting a family, could affect a society and how the people of that society live so greatly. Taiyaba’s presentation about the changing demographics of the Korean population was also really interesting because it will surely have a great impact on such a homogeneous country. I was surprised by how much Russian history was mixed into her topic. David’s topic about robots in Korea made me more aware of Korea’s advanced technology. I knew that Korea had the worlds best internet, but I didn’t know anything about their standing in robotics. It suprises me that Korean robotics is advanced and common enough that people can buy robots for the simplest things, like to be a drinking companion.

Overall, every presentation taught me something that I didn’t previously know about, which goes to show that there’s so much one could delve into when researching any country’s culture. Besides being on interesting topics, all of the presenters seemed to be well prepared and were well spoken, and I was impressed by how much each person had learned during their self-directed studies this semester.  

The article talks about a language extinction that is an American Indian language, Siletz, with only about five speakers left. A person who has been working to create a Siletz Dictionary for seven years said, "We don't know where it's going to go." As there are not a lot of speakers of Siletz left, Siletz speakers are hopeless about the revival of their language. However, one researcher found this idea to be interesting and tried to work on a language preservation project. It is interesting that Siletz has been preserved in a form of song, but no one grew up with it as a first language. There is also a prediction where the language might sound like English as it has a geographical similarities. Unfortunately, school was once the enemy of tribal languages; however, now it is taught it as a foreign language at schools in Siletz. It is part of native speaker's job to not make that language to be gone, and we should try to keep the languages as they show us the memories of history and culture.

Document a learning task that you have completed that meets a personal goal.

Translation:

Sunday:

            -9:00: I woke up. 

            -2:20: I drank coffee. It was delicious!

            -7:50: I read a book. I also ate food. 

Monday:

            -11:30: I did not eat lunch. I drank coffee. It was sweet and tasty. .

            -5:40: I study at the library. 

Tuesday:

            -8:35: I go to school. 

            -11:35: I went to the library.  

Wednesday:

            -8:25: I do not eat breakfast. 

            -3:00: I went to Korean class. 

            -5:30: I did homework. 

            -11:40: I go to sleep. 

Thursday:

            -10:45: I ate breakfast. 

            -4:40: I went to a meeting. 

            -6:30: I study Korean. 

Friday:

            -9:20: I woke up. .

            -5:00: I did homework and watched TV. 

            -8:55: I showered. 

Saturday:

            -10:15: I took a Korean test. 

            -12:30: I ate lunch with my family. It was good. 

            -4:10: I did homework. 

Show that you can ask and answer questions about identity

Text in Korean

(Me answering questions) Korean%20Recording-%20Carson%20asking%20questions.m4a

Question: 이름이 뭐예요 ?

Answer: 제 이름이 카슨이에요.

Question: 몇 살이에요?

Answer: 스무살 이에요.

Question: 선생님이에요?

Answer: 아니요. 학생이에요.

(Me asking questions) Korean%20Recording%202.m4a

Question: 이름이 뭐예요 ?

Answer: 제 이름이 김영진에요.

Question: 이학년이에요.

Answer: 네.

Translation into English 

(Me answering questions):

Question: What is your name?

Answer: My name is Carson.

Question: How old are you?

Answer: I’m 20 years old.

Question: Are you a teacher?

Answer: No. I am a student.

(Me asking questions)

Question: What is your name?

Answer: My name is Kim Young Jin.

Question: Are you a sophomore?

Answer: Yes.

Overall I think that SDLC was a great opportunity for me to further my knowledge of Korean. I learned so many different words and improved my writing/reading skill. Furthermore, I was able to learn more about the culture of Korea and become more aware of the current events happening in the country. I am able to see my progress when I read and write in Korean and I am able to recall the words that I made myself memorize.

I think the most difficult aspect of SDLC was keeping myself on track with my study plan. Because there is no required homework or tests given, it was hard to motivate myself to study. However, because I chose what I wanted to learn and had materials that were interesting, I was able to pull myself through. I really enjoyed reading The Little Prince and watching the news the most.

This week, I wanted to test how much I knew of Korean so I went on howtostudykorean.com and took three different unit tests. The tests composed of a comprehension section, grammar section, and listening section. I did pretty well on the test and I think that my consistent studying of Korean this semester really helped me score pretty high. I remember how I took a test in the beginning of the semester and scored an average grade. I think that this helped me see the progress I made through this course.

In addition,  I also watched a lot of the videos from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWwkebe58DeuZw-Lf1QRC7g which showed 20 second clips of places in Korea. I thought that it was interesting to watch.

My goal this week is to understand one of my favorite Korean songs that I came across by through youtube. When I started listening to this song on repeat, I did not think about what the song was actually saying and just listened to the melody. The song is called Can‘t Love You Anymore. Basically, I​ ​listened to the song multiple of​ ​times and saw if I could write the words in Korean and understand the meaning. I had to lower the speed because I could not write fast enough. This activity helped with my writing skill the most.

This week, I decided that I should assess my listening and comprehending skills. To due so, I thought that the best way to assess my skills was by listening to a video and writing ​a​ ​summary​ ​about​ ​it​. I watched a video https://youtu.be/4uGeMUotUYw that basically explains familial relationships with Korean parents and children. The TA recommended this channel because it talks about important topics within movies. After watching the video, I understood that it was talking about how parents should not be putting harsh pressures on their children and should allow them to grow independently in some aspects. Being too meddling might now allow for the children to grow. I rewatched the video three more times in slow-motion to pick out words that I did not know.

This week, I decided to see my ability to converse with people other than my parents. I decided to facetime my younger sister who is said to be a native speaker. She went to Korea this past summer and all of my relatives has told my mom that she excelled with her Korean. This may be due to her watching a lot of Korean television shows/documentaries and memorizing/understanding words that she does not understand. She also went to Korean school when she was younger and I did not. I facetimed her and we talked about what she was doing in school and I explained to her what I was doing in research. It was a different topic conversation with my parents and she told me how to say some words that I did not know in Korean. For example, I did not know what the terms biology, cells, doubled, etc. were and she knew. I was able to learn more words through our facetime.